Carrying ballast is generally a PR move used to sell superlight bicycles to amateurs.
This isn't true. Bikes like OGE's Scott Addict or (last year's) Garmin-Sharp's R5/RCA are frequently ballasted. There'a video of Simon Gerran's Addict somewhere showing the ballast under the bottom bracket.
In the 2013 Female Giro Fabiana Luperini was disqualified after she finished 4th on a stage after her bike was found to be under-weight[1]
I agree with the rest of your comments to some extent. The weight limit has been great for other innovations, especially the use of power meters which would have never happened if it weren't for the weight limit.
But now-days but it's pretty easy to build an aero-framed bike under the weight limit, even for something like the S5 (which is hardly the lightest aero frame around). There's a guy who got under 6kg (12.96lbs = 5.87kg), admittedly using some fairly exotic parts[2]
Comments
Carrying ballast is generally a PR move used to sell superlight bicycles to amateurs.
This isn't true. Bikes like OGE's Scott Addict or (last year's) Garmin-Sharp's R5/RCA are frequently ballasted. There'a video of Simon Gerran's Addict somewhere showing the ballast under the bottom bracket.
In the 2013 Female Giro Fabiana Luperini was disqualified after she finished 4th on a stage after her bike was found to be under-weight[1]
I agree with the rest of your comments to some extent. The weight limit has been great for other innovations, especially the use of power meters which would have never happened if it weren't for the weight limit.
But now-days but it's pretty easy to build an aero-framed bike under the weight limit, even for something like the S5 (which is hardly the lightest aero frame around). There's a guy who got under 6kg (12.96lbs = 5.87kg), admittedly using some fairly exotic parts[2]
[1] http://www.podiumcafe.com/2013/7/5/4496564/abbott-again-and-...
[2] http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t...